President Trump's Adviser Asks NATO Members To Meet Defense Shopping Target 2 Percent Before June Summit

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. (Wikimedia Commons/US Institute of Peace)

JAKARTA - United States President Donald Trump's top security adviser on Thursday asked all members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to fulfill their commitment to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense ahead of the summit of the upcoming June alliance.

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz made the call after previously the President said alliance members should spend 5 percent of their GDP, exceeding the 2 percent guidelines set in 2014.

"The fact that we will enter a NATO summit this June with a third of our NATO allies still not meeting the 2 percent minimum of the commitment they made a decade ago, literally a decade ago with the war on their doors, the biggest war they are so worried about," Waltz told a news conference. , quoted from The Korea Times February 21.

"But other people need to pay. We have other domestic priorities. That is unacceptable," he added.

Waltz said, before the upcoming summit, all NATO members must meet the target of spending 2 percent.

"We have to hit 100 percent this June, at a NATO summit, and then let's talk about going beyond that, which is what President Trump has talked about, 5 percent of GDP," he said.

"Europe needs to increase their own defenses as partners, and we can become friends and allies and have those difficult conversations," explains Waltz.

Waltz reiterated that American taxpayers continue to be "loaded, not only on the costs of war in Ukraine, but also on the European defense."

"We fully support our NATO allies. We fully support Article 5's commitment," he said, referring to the collective defense clause.

"But it's time for our European allies to step it up," he said.

Waltz's remarks come amid concerns that President Trump could sue South Korea to increase its spending on the deployment of US troops in Korea (USFK) with a magnitude of 28,500 personnel.

In October, Seoul and Washington reached an agreement on the division of defense costs, called the Special Action Agreement (SMA).

Under the agreement for the 2026-2030 period, Seoul will pay 1.52 trillion won (1.06 billion US dollars) next year, up from 1.4 trillion won this year.

After the SMA negotiations ended, President Trump said during the presidential campaign, South Korea would pay $10 billion a year for USFK maintenance if it was in the White House.